About Us

About

Sensible Reason is a millennial culture magazine covering all aspects of millennial culture. From music to news, poltics, art, history and more. SR has a bit of everything, for everyone.

Mission

Bringing you the news, music and information that you want to know.

Founder/Publisher: Greg Sarafan

Greg Sarafan founded Greg Sarafan’s Sensible Reason in 2007. He started blogging for HeadCount in January 2011. Soon after he organized and ran a small but successful charity festival called Binghamtronica to benefit HeadCount and OxFam America. He is a Team Leader in NYC as well as Artist Relations representative for HeadCount. Greg has B.A.s in political science and art history from Binghamton University. He recently completed his J.D. at Brooklyn Law School. Greg also volunteers for OxFam America as a Concert Outreach Coordinator. In 2009 Greg presented his theory of Artistic Stylistic Transmission in the Royal Mughal Atelier at an art history symposium at Ohio State University. Follow Greg on Twitter at @Gsarafan

Manager/Co-Owner: Kristen Grennan

Kristen began blogging with Sensible Reason in 2010 while living abroad in France. Kristen now edits posts, works with new writers, and develops artist and venue relations. Kristen also greatly enjoyed her work in fundraising, public relations, and volunteer coordinating this past summer with the GROW: Psychedelic Garden at Mint Green Music Festival.

Kristen has also maintained the travel blog KristenGInParis.blogspot.com since 2007 and has had travel articles featured in other travel blogs including BeersAndBeans.com. Kristen graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton with degrees in French and History and a minor in Global Studies. Kristen’s passion for non-profit work, traveling, and music have brought her to volunteer in Tanzania, teach English in France, coordinate festival and concert outreach for Oxfam America, write and edit for the blog Sensible Reason, WWOOF (working on an organic farm), and work in the Study Abroad Office at Binghamton University.

General Manager/Managing Editor: Jenny Mott

Jenny’s love affair with music, culture, and politics began many years ago, and she has always found that love best expressed through writing. A graduate of the University of Rochester with a B.A. in Political Science and Religion and a minor in Music, she is fascinated by what makes people tick, move, and behave. Heading straight to New York City after graduating, she works in marketing, communications, and advertising in addition to writing, editing, and geeking out on WordPress for Sensible Reason.

Artist/Media Relations:

Contributor: Jacki Moon

Jacki Moon is a writer, dreamer and yogi with a rebel soul. While she has been a writer for as far back as her memories go, she began taking the craft more seriously in her undergrad years when she got into music journalism. Her “Almost Famous” dreams and live music addiction have taken her on many adventures across the nation and have opened her heart to a love affair with the unknown. While Jacki is unsure where this crazy lifestyle will eventually lead, she loves every moment of it.

Managers and Editors:

Ali McGhee

Ali McGhee began writing for Sensible Reason in 2014, when she covered Asheville, NC’s, Moogfest. Ali has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in English with a minor in Religious Studies. She is currently a doctoral candidate in English literature at the University of Rochester, and she teachers academic writing at Warren Wilson College. Her academic research and much of her fiction and non-fiction focus on boundary transgressions, intersections of human creativity and technology, and hauntings, both literal and figurative. Her academic work has appeared in The Edgar Allan Poe Review, Romantic Circles, and Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations, and she has been a finalist for Glimmer Train‘s and New South‘s new fiction contests. When she’s not writing, Ali is passionate about Baptiste yoga, food, horror films, and travel (most recently she visited Iceland). She lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Follow Ali on Twitter: @HoodooAlphabet

Lily Parish

Lily Parish holds a degree in rhetoric and writing from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a local Austinite and active in the local film and music scene. She has a great love for wild adventures and the stories that follow, but mostly she has a wonder-filled heart and a space cadet mind.

Lindsey Brown

Lindsey joined Sensible Reason in February of 2014 and has been policing the perfection of tenses and capitalization ever since. After graduating Binghamton University in 2013 with a BA and MA in History, she moved to Brooklyn in the hopes of pursuing a career in publishing. An avid writer, Lindsey spends most of her free time working on her own fiction and op-ed pieces, while also contributing regularly to Sensible Reason. When not at work or writing, Lindsey can be found playing with her bunny, Jack, exploring the Big Apple, and putting too much creamer in her coffee.

Contributor/Social Media Manager: Sam Cohen

Sam Cohen’s desire to put the indescribable into words led him to his role as a music editorialist and social media manager for Sensible Reason. He joined the team in early 2014 after graduating from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Radio, Television and Film. Sam has produced big budget music videos, ran successful marketing campaigns and currently works in the digital marketing department of the nightclub Output. When he’s not avidly exploring new music and festivals, you can find him studying intellectual property, internet, and media law at Brooklyn Law School. Follow him: @SamCohen913

Editor: Mikalena Kenyon

Mikalena has been correcting grammar and punctuation since before it was cool. She graduated from the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2011 with a BA in Aesthetics and Culture. When not working in a museum bookstore, she can be found going to shows, drinking whiskey, working as a freelance baker, trying to make art and occasionally attempting to speak French and/or German. She lives in Brooklyn with a charming roommate and the sweetest cat ever.

Day Manager/Photographer: Jacque Lewis

As an inspiring concert photographer and creative force of Imaginationoverload, Jacque Lewis is rarely seen without her camera. When she takes a break from her studio and digital madness lab, Jacque can be found enjoying her passions for blogging, playing bass, hiking, cooking, gardening, and football. As an avid adventurer, Jacque enjoys traveling and is always up for a road trip! Self-proclaimed live music junkie, when ever she can sneak away from the day job you can rest assured she is off to a show getting down on the dance floor! Most recently Jacque has decided to get her EMT certification.

Ally Balcerzak

Ally Balcerzak is a freelance writer and photographer based out of Buffalo, NY, that has a penchant for traveling to anywhere with good food, loud music, and sites worth seeing. After getting her Bachelors in English from SUNY Buffalo, she decided to skip out on law school and head to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University for a Masters in Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism. Over the years she’s worked as a writer, editor, and photographer, focusing on entertainment journalism and live performances. She’s covered everything from electronic dance music to TV and movies, along with technology, current events, and sports.

Contributors and Photographers

Photographer/Contributor: Cameron Field

Cameron Field is a 25-year-old that currently resides in San Marcos, Texas. He works full time, but always finds time to take photos. Photography and music are his passions, and he loves covering live music events. When he’s not shooting events he enjoys video games, hiking, and snorkeling the amazing San Marcos river. Cameron hopes to someday become a full-time photographer!

Elyse Hauser

Elyse Hauser is a writer and editor from Washington State who is currently completing a Master’s in Writing Studies at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. In addition to the written word, she loves social justice, radical feminism, fashion, philosophy, and travel. Check out more of her work at elysehauser.com.

Boston GM/Contributor: Kadley Gosselin

Kadley Gosselin is a proud Vermonter now residing in Boston, a breeding ground for electronic music and performance art. She studied New Media & Publishing at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and channels her creative interests into a career in content production for a boutique media research company. She spends the majority of her free time at concerts, watching Boiler Room live shows and obsessively searching for new music. She is also a passionate foodie, craft beer enthusiast and typography geek. She mainly writes and edits for Sensible Reason, but also has experience managing social media, press campaigns and event production.

Contributor/Photographer: Alicia Savoly

Alicia Savoly lives in Central Jersey where Dirty Jerz stereotypes do not apply. She loves traveling, outdoor activities, music and photography. Recently she graduated from Kean University with a B.A in Graphic Communications and Minors in Management and Communications. Alicia plans to build her career in the photography industry, combining all of her leading passions. One of her favorite quotes: “I do not live to take photographs, I take photographs because it fills me with life.”

Contributor: Penny Pfalzer

Penny Bliss-Pfalzer is a Hockey Mom (to a 2002 girl) who lives outside of “Hockey Heaven” (a.k.a. Buffalo, NY). Penny plans on contributing political commentary and tales of a hockey rink rat family to Sensible Reason. When she is not cheering on her daughter’s all-girl travel hockey team, analyzing politics or loving up her three beagles and grumpy cat, she can be found on the back of one of her Moto Guzzis (Italian motorcycles); since she recently got her motorcycle license, she will be riding her very own Guzzi, “Purple Haze”, next spring.

Editorial Intern: Johannes Dreisbach

Johannes is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where he studied creative writing and political science. He was born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but is currently living in Detroit, interning with Food & Water Watch. He has also had stints living in Ann Arbor, Granada, Spain, and Washington, D.C. He loves professional basketball and guitar rock, and shares a birthday with two of history’s greatest literary minds, Dr. Seuss and John Irving.

Contributor: Lauren Sadowsky

Lauren Sadowsky is quite the fluffy fairy creature. A graduate of Binghamton University, with degrees in Psychology and English: Global Cultural Studies, along with a certification in Evolutionary Studies, she is consumed by curiosity about the unknown. She is a wanderer, yet not lost- a psycho-naut on a mission to explore the depths of the human psyche through behavioral observation and experimentation, with a bit of creative expression on the side. Her life motto? “Life’s a festival, rise to the occasion!” She invites you, all of you, ladies, gentlemen, children, bodhis, fairies, angels, extra-terrestrials, all sentient and non- sentient beings, to open your eyes, ears, noses, mouths, hands, and hearts to the unique experience of experience itself, to bask in the beauty of what is, and then channel it through the ultimate communicative tool- the written word.

Contributor: Sara Furer

Sara has always been a music lover, but this interest only escalated into a passion with a possible career path after being exposed to the totally unique music scene of New Orleans during her four years at Tulane University. She has worked on the PR/marketing end of various music companies, including the House of Blues in NOLA, HeadCount, and a startup music app called iAlbums, and is currently employed at Learned Evolution, who primarily handles Brooklyn Bowl’s social media (a venue she has recently taken up as her second home). After graduating from Tulane she spent five months living in Tel Aviv, Israel, which was one of the most enriching experiences of her life and she hopes to return someday soon. Writing about music is one of her favorite hobbies and she hopes you will enjoy her work!

Contributor/Photographer: Teresa Taylor

Tee Tay (Teresa Taylor of Proper Perceptions) has been a dedicated Sensible Reason contributor since 2011. As a Master of Architecture, lover of music dance and creative expression, and The Ambassador of Fun – her interests and passions embody all things aesthetically lovely and creative. As founder, Boss Lady and creative mind behind Proper Perceptions, she ventures and experiments with many visually stimulating mediums, including photography, spray paints and layering templates, and psychedelic graphic art and photo-editing. Her photography experience ranges from architectural captures from world-wide adventures, to thorough and professional site documentation, to capturing musicians passionate live show facial expressions and covering the full festival experience with her trusty Nikon D90. Most of her time outside of work is spent deep in and around the music and festival scene, as well as taking significant time with nature and outdoor adventures. She is thrilled to be able to continue her work with Sensible Reason – the ultimate dream team.

Contributor/Social Media: Diana Kumpf

Diana Kumpf always felt best expressed through written word. The study of journalism and creative writing at Monmouth University led to her goal of becoming a damn good music journalist. Today you can find Diana at concerts, her natural habitat…a living a breathing entity of the scene. Hungry for success, she scribbles ideas on notepads under smoke and lasers.

Adam Scott

From the Hudson side city of Kingston, NY, Adam is now living in Brooklyn and loving life. He has a BS in Business Marketing from SUNY New Paltz, a town so crunchy incents and granola are a form of currency. He recently started blogging and volunteering for the voter registration organization HeadCount.org. He started managing SR’s social media promotion as well as blogging from time to time. Adam does the everyday things, everyday, that everyday people need everyday. Adam has a passion for traveling and always wants to go someplace new whenever possible.

Connor Lavin: Infinitely fueled by bass music, driven by festival travels, constantly inspired by new connections. Born and raised in the Sunshine State, currently studying Journalism in Orlando, FL. “Freak in the morning, freak in the evening, ain’t no other freak like meat that’s breathing” SoundCloud: when_the_meat_drops